Category: 6. Sports

Martin Odegaard scored a late winner to make it two wins out of two from the Singapore leg of our Asia Tour. 

The skipper converted from 12 yards after another penetrating run into the box by teenager Max Dowman resulted in a spot kick. 

We had earlier come from 1-0 down to lead in the first-half, and Odegaard was delighted with the team’s effort at the full-time whistle.

“Yes, it was a tough one,” he said afterwards. “It’s really tough physically to play in this heat, and against a strong side, a physically strong team. It was a good challenge, but we got there in the end and we got the win. Two out of two now, so we’re happy.

“In the first half we played some really good football. They scored on probably the only chance they had, after that we played good football, we controlled the game.

“The second half was a bit too open, but we managed to get the win. Some really good performances again. Max coming on, making the difference. There are a lot of positive things to take with us.”

Dowman’s performance was just one of the highlights from a game in which new signings Martin Zubimendi, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Christian Norgaard all got more minutes on the pitch, and several academy players also shone. 

Odegaard believes the squad is shaping up very nicely in pre-season. “It feels good. I feel like we’re getting better and better, stronger and stronger. As you say, new players coming in and adding something new to the team, to the group. It’s looking good and we still have some time to get ready and to get better. I think we’re in a good way and we just have to keep going.”

The captain finished by praising the incredible support the team has received so far while out on tour in Southeast Asia. 

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “I’ve been surprised with how much support and love we get out here. It’s a long way from London and to feel that love and support here, it shows how big this club is and how special it is to be a part of this football club. It’s been amazing and a great experience.”

16:00 Sunday 27 July 2025

Compared to the morning after the start of the last two Rolex Fastnet Races, this year’s special centenary edition has seen just a tiny number of retirements as the frontrunners fan out across the Celtic Sea and the bulk of the fleet negotiates the famous headlands of the Cornish and Devonshire coasts.  

So far the most high profile retirements have been former class winner Noel Racine’s JPK 1030 Foggy Dew with a damaged mainsail (now arrived in Cherbourg), while Scott Shawyer’s IMOCA Canada Ocean Racing – Be Water Positive pulled out just before midnight due to an issue with their hydraulics and are also heading for Cherbourg. Former RORC Commodore James Neville’s Ino Noir, part of the RORC Red Admiral’s Cup team, has also been forced to pull out with electrical charging problems. 

At the front of the fleet the raw power of the 32m long flying Ultim trimarans has finally prevailed after Jason Carroll’s MOD70 Argo led the fleet out of the Solent yesterday. Exiting Lyme Bay yesterday evening the tables turned and it was Argo’s direct rival Erik Maris’ Zoulou that took the lead, only to have the Tom Laperche-skippered SVR Lazartigue and Anthony Marchand’s Actual Ultim 4 thunder past at Start Point. Late yesterday evening the multihull leaders tacked to pass up the left side of the Land’s End TSS and then spent the morning making progress to weather, to the east of the rhumb line with the lead Ultims extending away with SVR Lazartigue, the present multihull race record holder, out in front. 

Erik Maris’ Zoulou has had a ‘snakes and ladders’ race so far © James Tomlinson/RORC 

While from the tracker it appeared the lead multihulls were roaring across the Celtic Sea, on board Zoulou Ned Collier Wakefield reported that they were making just 10 knots (virtual standstill on a foiling trimaran). “It’s been a game of snakes and ladders across the Celtic Sea, but we’re having a nice duel with Actual and Sodebo at the moment. It was a tricky start, but we managed to use Portland Bill and protect the right and get into the northwesterly. We had a fantastic kind of launched fetch, up around Start Point with the two foiling Ultims just behind, hunting us down, which was quite fun. We were doing 30s and they must have been doing 40s…!”

Surprisingly the nine Ocean Fifty trimarans were also halfway across the Celtic Sea mid-morning, nipping at the heels of the speeding MOD70s with Matthieu Perraut/Jean-Baptiste Gellée on Inter Invest and Tanguy le Turquais/Erwan Le Draoulec on Lazare having pulled out a small lead. 

Similarly, in the IMOCA class Elodie Bonafous’ Association Petits Princes-Queguiner and Jérémie Beyou’s Charal were just in front of their group as they pulled out into the Celtic Sea. 

Sam Davies’ Initiatives Coeur led the IMOCA past Start Point © James Tomlinson/RORC 

Like Zoulou, after a disappointing start, Sam Davies and her crew on board Initiatives Coeur turned this around by going inshore in Lyme Bay. “We weren’t so good going out of the Solent, but then we dared to go where we believed was right, which was to the right and we were quite happy because we made it round Start Point in first place. That was a big milestone for us and we managed to hook up to the front of the fleet which is good because they are slightly faster than us.”

Davies continued: “We had some good stages yesterday and last night, foiling, because there were a couple of moments where we weren’t fully upwind. Upwind, we kind of managed to get up on the foils doing 15-16 knots.”

Class40s neck and neck exiting the Solent yesterday  © James Tomlinson/RORC 

The sizeable Class40 fleet was boldly exploring the central Channel overnight, passing Start Point late yesterday evening and the Lizard at around 05:00 this morning, around 14 miles offshore. At around 09:30 the front runners tacked north to lay the west side of the Land’s End TSS. Consistently ahead have been Axel Trehin and Corentin Douguet’s Faites un Don sur SNSM.org and William Mathelin-Moreaux’s Les Invincibles.

Late morning the Admiral’s Cup leaders had all headed up the west side of the Land’s End TSS with the 52s, Peter Harrison’s Jolt 3, Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste and Max Klink’s 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Caro, jockeying for the lead in Admiral’s Cup 1. Admiral’s Cup 2 was an JPK 1180 bonanza with the Michele Ivaldi-skippered Django JPK leading ahead of Per Roman’s Garm, and Sunrise, the new JPK 1180 of 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Tom Kneen. While most of the Admiral’s Cuppers were heading west up the Land’s End TSS, Sean Langman and John Alexander’s GP42 Back 2 Black in the CYCA team from Australia were the first to go east. 

For a full report on the Admiral’s Cup – click here

Bedouin enjoyed leading IRC Overall earlier © Gilles Martin-Raget

While it means little at this early stage of the race, leading the giant 380 boat IRC fleet this morning was Linda Goddard’s Swan 53 Bedouin, and her crew of largely family all the way from Australia, in IRC One. 

“We had a good night. We’ve been trucking along here, pretty close to Lizard Point,” Goddard reported this morning. “We’re sitting at the moment at about 10 knots with current a little bit against us, and we’re looking to make a decision soon about which direction to go past the exclusion zone [Land’s End TSS].

“We had a really good start and when we left the Needles, we had some really good shifts towards St Albans, and we went over those overfalls there and really took advantage of the currents. And the team’s just been really doing a good job all night.”

This morning Bedouin was leading the more familiar JPK 1180s Eric Fries’ Fastwave 6 and Ed Bell’s Dawn Treader. Ermanno Traverso’s classic 1961 line honours winner Stormvogel had gone north early to pass up the TSS’ east side off Land’s End, along with Conor Doyle’s XP50 Freya from Ireland and subsequently Bedouin. Meanwhile 2015 winner Géry Trentesaux’s Sydney GTS 43 Long Courrier was holding on starboard to go up the TSS’ west side with Hanno Ziehm’s Marten 49 Moana. 

Ahead, as expected, Christian Zugel’s Transatlantic Race and RORC Caribbean 600 winner Tschüss 2 was putting in a command performance leading IRC SZ on corrected time, although the 100-footers – Seng Huang Lee’s SHK Scallywag and Remon Vos’ Black Jack 100 were neck and neck at the front of monohull fleet, just ahead of Joost Schuijff’s Leopard 3 and the IMOCAs and just astern of the Ocean Fiftys. 

Whisper leads IRC Zero © James Tomlinson/RORC

In addition to Bedouin in IRC One, Australia was also doing well in IRC Zero. Here David Griffith’s JV60 Whisper has been leading on the water since exiting the Solent and did well staying offshore while passing Portland Bill before diving into Lyme Bay, hugging Start Point at around 21:30 last night and going offshore at the Lizard at around 03:00 this morning. The IRC Zero entries left the decision about which side of the Land’s End TSS to go until the last moment with Whisper eventually bailing from going east and heading west, followed as ever closely by Jens Kellinghusen’s Ker 56 Varuna 6. The first yacht to head up the east side was Christophe Bachmann and his crew on Jean-Luc van den Heede’s former round the world record-breaker Adrien. Under corrected time Whisper was leading from Eric Defert and famous Vendée Globe and round the world skipper Jean-Pierre Dick aboard the Swan 76 La Loevie and former Class 40 Rolex Fastnet Race winner Antoine Magre aboard his brand new Sam Manuard-designed 50-footer Palanad 4. 

IRC Three has remained offshore since the start but this morning the leaders in this giant class dived northwest in towards the Lizard. While Philippe Girardin’s J/120 Hey Jude is ahead on the water, Julien Bentz’s J/99 Whimjy 99 is ahead of Hey Jude under corrected time, with Jean Cruse’s well-named A-35 Crew’s Control third. There was a potent group to the north, aiming most closely at the Cornish headland, including the Sams White and North on the JPK 1080 Mzungu! and Rob Craigie and RORC Commodore Deb Fish on the 2024 RORC Season’s Points Championship winner Sun Fast 3600 Bellino. 

From on board Gareth Edmonson’s JPK 1030 Insert Coin, Charles Darbyshire reported this morning: “We’re about 30 miles from the Lizard. We have got nine knots of wind – although it doesn’t feel like it – from 311?.  We had a very exciting rounding of Portland Bill where we went right close in and then we had an okay three hours and then a really bad three hours – maybe we had something on the keel…”

Ludovic Menahes’s Raphael leads IRC Four © Paul Wyeth/RORC

In IRC Four it was a fest of JPK 1010s with Ludovic Menahes’s Raphael ahead, both on the water and under corrected time, of Adrien Zucconi’s Loiza and Yann Jestin’s Papillon 4/Vari, enjoying a more successful race this year compared to 2023 when his previous Vari sank off the Needles. Past Sigma 38 winner Chris Choules, skipper of With Alacrity, commented on how his race was going: “an extremely frustrating five hours,” in four knots of wind and an awkward sea state that “killed our speed stone dead. But you shouldn’t go offshore racing if you don’t have a good sense of humour!”

Late morning IRC Four was between Start Point and the Lizard. Bringing up the rear was Robert Marchant and his Irish crew on the Westerly Fulmar 32 Fulmar Fever.

By James Boyd

The former world number one amateur held a two-shot lead going down the par-five 18th and, after knocking a wedge to tap-in range, she finished in style with a birdie.

“It’s a pretty good outcome,” Woad said in understated fashion. “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win but knew I was playing well and just hoping to contend.

“There’s not many scoreboards out there, but I knew it was probably quite tight at one stage.

“It’s great. Links golf is really fun and it went fine. My dad was here all week and my mum got the train up last night, so I was hoping I wouldn’t mess it up.”

Woad, who won the Irish Open as an amateur, turned professional last week after missing out on £400,000 prize money when finishing just a shot outside the play-off won by Grace Kim at the Evian Championship – the women’s fourth major of the year.

She now takes home £220,000 in prize money for winning on Scotland’s west coast and heads to Royal Porthcawl for next week’s Women’s Open among the favourites.

“Even if I hadn’t won this week, I would still be trying to win the Open next week,” added Woad. “It’s still a learning curve getting used to the attention.”

16:55 (CEST, GMT+2)

Hello – and in Basel style, grüezi and salut! Welcome to the Olympics.com live blog for the UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 final between England and Spain, where you can follow all the action from St. Jakob-Park in Switzerland.

Lionesses head coach Wiegmann and La Roja head coach Tomé have named their starting line-ups for the final. Spain make one change with Athenea del Castillo in for Clàudia Pina, while Jess Carter returns in defence for England in place of Esme Morgan.

Here are the 22 starting players for the EURO 2025 final:

England starting XI: Hannah Hampton; Alex Greenwood, Jess Carter, Leah Williamson, Lucy Bronze; Georgia Stanway, Keira Walsh, Ella Toone; Lauren James, Alessia Russo, Lauren Hemp

Spain starting XI: Cata Coll; Ona Batlle, Irene Paredes, Laia Aleixandri, Olga Carmona; Patri Guijarro, Aitana Bonmatí, Alexia Putellas; Athenea del Castillo, Mariona Caldentey; Esther González

Lottie Woad closed out the dream start to her professional golf career by closing out an impressive three-shot victory at the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open.

Woad secured her maiden Ladies European Tour title earlier this month at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open and narrowly missed out on major victory the following week at the Amundi Evian Championship, with the Englishwoman maintaining her form in her professional debut.

The 21-year-old took a two-shot lead into the final day at Dundonald Links and never relinquished control at the event, co-sanctioned by the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour, holding off Hyo Joo Kim and the chasing pack to take the title.

Woad mixed five birdies with a lone bogey to post a final-round 68 and end the week on 21 under, three clear of Kim, with Sei Young Kim in tied-third on 14 under alongside Spain’s Julia Lopez Ramirez.

Victory sees Woad become just the third player in history to win their first start on the LPGA Tour as an LPGA Tour Member and just the 12th Englishwoman to win on the LPGA Tour,

How Woad completed dream debut

Woad holed a six-foot birdie at the second and added another at the par-five next, but saw her lead cut to one when Kim – playing in the group ahead – followed an opening-hole birdie by making three in a row from the fifth.

Kim cancelled out a bogey at the eighth by starting her back nine with successive birdies to pull level with Woad, who responded by birdieing the 13th and rolling in from eight feet to take advantage of the par-five next.

Woad temporarily went three ahead when Kim undid her birdie at the 14th with bogeys over each of her next two holes, with the rookie maintaining control of the tournament despite finding thick rough with her approach into the par-four 16th and then two-putting for bogey.

A par at the 17th kept Woad’s two-shot buffer heading to the par-five last, where she elected to lay up before flicking a wedge to two feet and close out a memorable victory in style.

Kim matched Woad’s 68 to claim second, while Ramirez’s final-round 65 was enough for tied-third when Sei Young Kim double-bogeyed her final hole. Nelly Korda grabbed fifth place ahead of Nanna Koerstz Madsen, playing in the final group alongside Woad, who finished with a triple-bogey.

England’s Alice Hewson carded back-to-back 69s over the weekend to finish in a share of tenth, while Leona Maguire ended tied-16th and Charley Hull finished in a share of 21st after both posting final-round 71s.

Woad proud of ‘unexpected win’

“It [winning] is a pretty good outcome, I guess!” Woad said. “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event, but knew I was playing well. I was just hoping to contend and played really solid today. It was pretty nice in the end, being able to lay up on the par five.

“I didn’t know I’d got level [with Kim]. I knew it would be quite tight, as I was only a couple under at the turn. When I had the two birdies early on the back nine I knew I probably had a bit of a lead by then.

“I don’t get to play it too often – this is my first time playing links golf since the AIG Women’s Open last year. I wasn’t exactly sure how it would go but it went fine!”

Who will win the AIG Women’s Open? Watch throughout the week live on Sky Sports. Live coverage from the opening round begins on Thursday from midday on Sky Sports Golf. Not got Sky? Stream the women’s majors and more with no contract.

The eighth round of the 2025 Superbike World Championship has drawn to its conclusion at new circuit Balaton Park in Hungary. A very important milestone was also reached at Balaton on Sunday, in that the Superpole race marked the 1000^th WorldSBK race start. Unfortunately, Honda HRC rider Iker Lecuona was unable to compete today, having sustained an injury in a multi-rider crash that occurred at the start of Saturday’s Race 1. This meant that Xavi Vierge was the factory team’s sole representative on track today.

Just prior to the morning’s sprint race, a special 1000th WorldSBK race commemorative photo was taken on the main straight. Vierge then started today’s Superpole race from seventh on the grid, having gained two places due to the withdrawal of Iker and Iannone. The race got underway on a damp track following heavy rain earlier in the morning. Xavi, who had opted for slick tyres at both front and rear, made a very strong start and moved straight up into fifth place. A contact on lap one unfortunately caused the Spaniard to slip back to ninth. Quick to react, Vierge battled hard to pass his closest rivals and progressed to fifth by lap four. Demonstrating impressive pace, Xavi climbed as high as fourth, only surrendering one position in the final stages. A solid fifth-place finish nevertheless guaranteed the Spaniard more precious points and a second-row start for the afternoon’s second and final race.

The second and final 21-lap SBK race ran a few hours later, in dry conditions. Fifth on the grid thanks to his Superpole race result, Vierge dropped to seventh over the first few laps. Again able to maintain consistent pace, Xavi managed the second half of the race effectively to secure final seventh position.

After eight of twelve championship rounds, Vierge has consolidated seventh place in the general standings with 112 points, while Lecuona, unable to collect points this weekend, now lies sixteenth with a tally of 90. The Honda HRC team now has two days of testing scheduled at Aragon on August 25–26, in preparation for Round 9, set to take place on September 5–7 at the Magny-Cours circuit in France.

Considering how the weekend started on Friday, we were able to make some improvements, and overall, I think it turned into a solid weekend. Today especially, as the Superpole Race was a positive one. We knew we had a good opportunity because, with those track conditions, we were better able to make up for our weak points. We made a good tyre choice and started the race well. It was a pity about the contact with Montella; he hit me really hard at turn 11 shortly after the start of the race. The impact was strong enough to trigger my airbag, and for almost half a lap I could barely breathe. Of course, I lost ground and contact with the front group fighting for the podium. Still, finishing in the top five was a good result and allowed me to start from the second row in Race 2, which was helpful. In the long race, I made a another good start, but unfortunately, as the laps went by, I kept struggling with edge grip and drive. It’s difficult for me to manage that because as soon as I try to go with the group in front, the tyres spin more and overheat. We’ve also struggled in the braking zones here, which made things even more complicated. I had to accept the pace I had and just manage it to the end. P7 is not the result we want, especially with such a big gap to the front. But this is our situation, we understand our problems, and we’re giving our best with what we have. Now we’ll focus on the test in Aragon in about three weeks’ time. There, we’ll try different set-ups, but without losing sight of our current base which gives me good feeling with the front of the bike. As soon as we lose that, we’re lost — just like we were on Friday and during the last round. We must keep that feeling no matter what, and try to limit our weak points as much as possible.

South African speedster Bayanda Walaza ended the 2025 FISU World University Games in Bochum, Germany, with a three-medal haul, adding the men’s 4x100m relay silver to his 100-200m double gold.

The teen sprinting sensation could easily have walked away with a rare golden treble if it were not for a messy final changeover from Mthi Mthimkulu. This left Walaza too much to do, chasing the flying team from the Republic of Korea.

The flawless Koreans carried the baton across the line in a winning time of 38.50 seconds with South Africa following on their heels in 38.80s. India rounded out the podium in 38.89s.

The 19-year-old Walaza bows out of the Games with an impressive medal haul after opening his campaign by winning the 100m in a time of 10.16s, holding off a strong challenge from Thailand’s Puripol Boonson (10.22).

The Olympic relay silver medallist repeated his feat from the World Athletics Under-20 championships by also winning the 200m title on Thursday.

Walaza said he would now turn his focus to the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September, where he aims to continue his rise in the global ranks.

“It (his goals) is showing up in the world stage, and showing people that South Africa can produce other sprinters [other than Akani Simbine],” Walaza said.

“I want to showcase my talent to the world and make sure that I am being recognised by the end of this year.”

Walaza said he hoped to keep some of the established sprinters on their toes and warned that he believed he could snatch a medal if they were to fall into complacency.

“So I’ll say, my goal is to make sure that I get into the finals and get a medal,” he said.

“The future is LA 2028, that’s the main goal. Beyond that, my goal is to be the best sprinter for the next decade.”

The Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) has announced a substantial increase in cash rewards for national athletes who secure medals at international sporting events.

The decision came during the 34th meeting of the PSB Board, where the revised “Cash Award Policy” was formally unveiled. Under the new policy, prize money for Olympic gold winners has risen to Rs30 million from Rs10m earlier. Silver medalists will now receive Rs20 million, while bronze medalists will be awarded Rs10 million.

Also Read: Naqvi confirms dates for Asia Cup

The revised scheme also includes enhanced financial incentives for other major international competitions. Gold medalists at the Asian Games will receive Rs15m while silver and bronze medal holders will now be entitled to Rs7m and Rs5m, respectively.

For the Commonwealth Games, gold medalists will be awarded with Rs7.5m and the Asian Snooker Championship winner will get Rs750,000. 

The policy further covers squash, squash, with Rs10m in prize money allocated for players winning the prestigious British Open or an equivalent tournament.

16:00 Sunday 27 July

Life at the front of IRC Super Zero is very close indeed. It’s a slow-motion game of chess on the Celtic Sea, as the big Maxi yachts try to eke out every ounce of speed in the light, sub-10 knot breezes that are wafting them bit by bit towards the Fastnet Rock.

David Witt’s SHK Scallywag is leading the small but exclusive IRC Super Zero fleet on the water, although the Hong Kong boat finds itself in a close tussle with Black Jack 100 just to leeward, and Leopard 3 not far behind. Scallywag’s veteran navigator, Australian Will Oxley, says the competition with their fellow 100-footers has been intense at times. “We’re very close to Black Jack at the moment, and we got into a small tacking duel with them for a short time, although things have calmed down a bit now.”

With so much wide-open space to play with on the Celtic Sea, it seems strange that the two giant monohulls would engage in a potentially speed-sapping match race, but it wasn’t just for laughs. “It was about trying to establish the side that we wanted,” Oxley explained. “It was just to clarify where they were trying to get to, but Black Jack are a little quicker in these conditions. In these 10-knot conditions we’re right between our J0 and J2 so it’s quite tricky working out what to use. 

Black Jack 100 is owned by Remon Vos, with Tristan Le Brun skippering © ROLEX/Kurt Arrigo

“We’ve been through quite a few sail changes and with every weather model change, it’s getting a little slower. We can see that the Ultims aren’t exactly setting the world on fire.” So much so that at one point Scallywag even managed to cross ahead of two of the massive multihulls who in stronger breeze would have been long over the horizon. “Yeah, it was quite good, just before we went past Start Point we crossed ahead of Banque Populaire and Sodebo.” The moment of triumph was not to last. “They still made short work of us,” he laughed. 

A little bit further behind, another Antipodean navigator, Campbell Field, was trying to make sense of the fickle conditions on board Tschüss 2. Christian Zugel’s Volvo Open 70 is doing a good job of just about hanging on to the coat tails of the 100-footers ahead. “We were pretty happy how it all panned out at the start,” said Field. “We had a plan to start up near the Squadron [on the Isle of Wight side of the start line]. We were able to take advantage of the current at the start, but then 30 seconds later had to tack away to keep away from the exclusion zone.” 

As they exited the Solent, Tschüss 2 made a move towards the mainland shore which paid off nicely. “We held off a bit from Hurst,” said Field. “It would have been nice to get a bit closer to wave to all the fans, but then we made our way up the North Channel because we were always anticipating a bit of a right shift. We ended up ahead of the 100-footers so we made some nice gains.”

Tschüss 2 is enjoying strong rivalry with fellow 70-footer Pyewacket 70 © ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

Since then Tschüss 2 has enjoyed some close-quarters skirmishes with Pyewacket 70, an American Volvo Open 70 skippered by Roy P Disney. “I’d say they were a mile in front of us and we basically ground them down and it was actually quite satisfying to manage to outpace them,” said Field. “We had the whole team on full focus, treating it as a bit of an inshore race. It’s actually really, really good to have another boat of a very similar pace because you really end up sharpening your pencil. I think you never sail a boat as fast as you do as when you’ve got someone right next to you; someone who is very similar because you can see immediately any subtle changes or adjustments between the mode and in terms of metres gained or lost to the other boat.”

Back on SHK Scallywag, Oxley estimates they’ll round the Fastnet Lighthouse around midnight. For Field and his teammates on Tschüss 2 it’s likely to be an hour or two after that. “We’ll most likely go round in the small hours of the morning,” said Field. “I’ve done four or five Fastnet Races and I think I’ve only seen the Rock once in daylight. At night time I think you end up getting closer because you don’t get nervous staring at those rocks. Once we’ve rounded, we’ll have a small toast to celebrate, then off we go for the trip back to Cherbourg.”

IRC Super Zero Entries and Results

By Andy Rice